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Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes says he’ll never seek a political career, arguing he’d make a ‘bullshit politician’.

Atlassian co-founder and tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes. Picture: John Feder

Atlassian co-founder and tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has declared he would never enter politics, telling The Australian he’d make a “bullshit politician”.

In an in-depth interview with The Australian for the latest episode of its Forward Slash podcast, available for download now, the high-profile executive said his ­direct communication style would not be a good fit for Canberra.

“I’m far too honest,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said. “And I think it’s really hard. I think one of the challenges of our party system is that the party has to have a view — and when you don’t, you’re outside the party. I understand why that is. But at the same time, that’s a really difficult thing.”

The software executive has become increasingly vocal on Australia’s tech fails in recent years, but says the tech industry needs to shoulder some of the blame for not doing a good enough job in standing up for itself and advocating for good policy.

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Mr Cannon-Brookes and many of his industry colleagues have been particularly critical of Australia’s so-called anti-encryption laws, and of Australia’s stance on innovation more broadly.

“I spend most of my time talking to people on all sides, trying to explain … on a lot of technology policy issues, and Australia has stubbed our toe, if I put it politely, a fair few times now,” he said.

“And on energy issues, we can look at it as ‘these silly politicians don’t understand what’s going on’, or we can say, ‘hey, we don’t do a good job of explaining these issues’. They’re very subtle, they’re very complicated. And we need to help that process be as good as it can. It’s too easy to sort of just sit around and throw stones.”

He added that tech executives should be more comfortable when speaking out on issues that matter to them, including on politics.

“Technology leaders often don’t realise the skills they’ve built doing their day job. It’s an industry that is used to a very fast pace, it’s used to disruption … Australia is facing some challenges — in agriculture, energy, transportation — and those skills in managing disruption and exponential change will be incredibly important.”

He said Big Tech had come under scrutiny for what is perceived to be an increasingly negative role in society, with US social media giants in particular facing regulation and growing criticism.

It was incumbent on tech companies to grapple with their effects on society, Mr Cannon-Brookes said, in the same way as the smoking industry did before it, and it’s also incumbent on governments to regulate firms appropriately.

“We didn’t know anything about smoking for many years. And as we learned over time, it was not so good for you. So we put constraints on those businesses,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said.

“I think the tech sector as a whole … we want to have as few externalities as possible that aren’t positive. And maybe all businesses do, (but) I think the tech sector has the advantage of being used to disruption. Seeking to solve problems very, very fast is part of what building technology is all about. And if you don’t, you’re going to get run out of town.”